There are some moments…and days…when nothing you say comes out right and nothing you write reads articulate. In other words, there will be times when your most useful tool fails you. When that happens, should you speak anyway only to at some point find yourself eating your misspoken words? Should you write anyway, knowing that at some point, particularly with the help of a computer and a word processor, that you can erase and rewrite those words, reshape and re-present the core message of what you truly wanted to say originally? Yes, that may very well be the answer. Write. Don’t speak. However, before you write…read. Reading will always better inform the tongue. Reading will always sharpen your pencil and put ink into your pen. Reading will make your fingertips anxious for the tik-tak-tik of the keyboard. When your own words fail, read.

Like this:

Hit the local library after work yesterday for a quick small haul. Will need to go back to grab a research haul for a new project that just developed (a have a phone call/FaceTime meeting for further developments on that tomorrow).

Like this:

It’s a good thing I’m a fairly independent person who is no stranger to the role of lone wolf and self-reliance because I’ve once again been made starkly aware that it’s the only way for me to roll creatively, at least until certain things significantly change. As a musician, inherently I am a very collaborative soul who nowadays finds writing songs alone quite boring and not-quite-so-fulfilling. This past year has proven that I can’t rely on my now always dormant band for a consistent musical outlet. And now recently I’ve been shown that I can’t rely on illustrators to co-create comics. So I may as well couch that particular goal once again and simply get on with writing prose, right? Because . . .

Art Fart

. . . My recent dalliance with a trio of different artists has proven ultimately fruitless for different reasons unique to each of them. And for two of them there’s one big reason. I’m looking for more of a co-creator partnerships, sharing equal rights to the IP, with the eventual (back-end) earnings tilted in the artist’s direction because he or she would be doing all the heavy lifting in terms of the division of labor. Only one artist, my best friend, was agreeable to that setup, but the proverbial outside distractions on his side of things has derailed that particular project, indefinitely. One of the other artists, a Canadian, is clearly after a work-for-hire situation to earn up-front money which translates into a paid commission by me. Well, if I’m going to pay that page rate for the work, then I would (like an editor/publisher) intend on owning that work (the original pages) for which I’m paying professional rates. And artist number three resides in Italy, is also a musician like I am (though far more active) and of course being uber talented (like, seasoned professional-level talent) his services are in high demand and thus I lack competitive advantage in that rat race.

Oh, and earlier in the year there was an artist/creator who was only looking for a writer to script the stories that he has pre-conceived. So, yeah, it’s been a mixed bag of upsets and misconnections.

So the Dream is Dead, Right?

No. Not dead. Dormant, again, yes. But never dead. I have what I like to call a comic book fetish. I’m generally a bookworm overall, but comics have a slight edge due to the immediate and serialized nature of them (and say nothing of their unlimited content and narrative potential). As a kid who watched a lot of TV and read a lot of comics, I became an adult obsessed with serialized fiction and graphic/visual storytelling. So to finally be writing comics professionally in the very near future still remains in my overall goals as a writer. But truth be told, I shouldn’t have stopped drawing twenty years ago. Had I kept drawing (and maybe even gone to school for illustration and design) I would have been self-reliant enough and likely a 10, 15-year industry vet by now.

Try, Try Again?

I might just be a glutton for punishment, but despite my early flame-out with NaNoWriMo at the start of this month, I’m going to force myself back onto the novel grind. I mean, what else is a lone wolf supposed to do? No, nothing’s change in the home life and lifestyle that would be more conducive to novel writing, but I just have to tough that out and get pages written by any means necessary. To serve the inherent splintered focus that unfortunately comes with long form work, I fortunately have a few different projects to toggle between when I hit the inevitable wall on one.

The Lineup

So what’s on the roster of priority projects of long form stories for this stumbling, bumbling scribe? It looks a lil’ sumthin’ like this:

Title or [Codename] — Format — Progress — Initiated

All Things Considered — novella — 5000 + — 1997

Misery Loves Company — novel — 8000 + — 2001

[Project Blood-Borne] — novel — 10000 + — 2009

The Dame’s Got Game — novel — 1400 + — 2016

[Project One Shot] — novel — 2 pages — 2016

[Project Anti-Media] — serial — notes — 2016

I guess I should probably update the Projects page to reflect this current roster.

Like this:

So this past week, November 22nd, to be precise, marked the five year anniversary of the publication of the first ever physical book to bear my byline on the cover (as editor/compiler). Local Heroes was a small anthology conceived, compiled and edited by yours truly and published by now defunct small press publisher Static Movement (with an assist by the also now defunct publisher Pill Hill Press andAmazon).

As the proud compiler of this anthology I somehow managed to select some exceptional work from my fellow scribes. As noted in the introduction, the sequencing of the pieces (24 in total, including one by me) was a tough task not unlike that of a DJ deciding which songs to get the party jumping and keep it rocking throughout.

As stated in my introduction, I had to go with the three stories that emotionally impacted me the most as the lead-off trinity. “Virtual Memory” by Bob Eccles (known more for his horror stories), was a sci-fi story with so much heart (break) that I did become a little misty-eyed when reading it, which doesn’t really happen when I’m reading short fiction. I believe that story went on to win an award of some kind (I just can’t remember which).

The second piece, “Football and Faith” by Kevin Wallis, also pulled on my heartstrings a bit.

And then “In the Eye of the Beholder” used a game of baseball to tell a very touching coming-of-age tale that gripped me immediately.

There were several military stories that tackled heroism in their own unique ways. Guardian angels also had a strong presence, as well as what can only be described as, well, ‘local heroes’.

For the theme of Local Heroes alone makes it an important book, so I’m happy and proud to’ve helped bring it into the world, even if for only a small press print run.

Today I think the theme of local heroes is a very timely one, all things considered. I’d love to do a sequel someday.